Southern Iowa Fair teaches important life lessons
Jul. 25—OSKALOOSA — Local youth spent this past week showing off their agricultural knowledge and showmanship at the Southern Iowa Fair. Between shows, some of the exhibitors took time to talk to The Herald about what it takes to represent Mahaska County at the fair.
"You have to get up really early," said Jack Vos, an equine exhibitor. "Then you've got to groom your horses, go wash them — after you feed them, of course — and then it's just a lot of trimming, getting their manes and tails all combed out, getting all your tack all polished up and clean."
It's worth it to the exhibitors. All week long they came out in force, ready and excited to show off their hard work to the judges.
Ava Long, a swine exhibitor, talked to The Herald about what goes through an exhibitor's mind when it's finally their turn to compete.
"I'm thinking about how hard I have been working to get there, and how the judge is looking at my pig, and getting to the judge so he gets to see my pig more."
"The hardest part [about getting ready to show] is probably getting up in the morning and starting brushing, and oiling, and rotor brushing, and then we go and wash them and we walk them around our yard," Long said.
All that hard work pays off in the end, though, and even the kids know that valuable life lessons are being learned.
"I'd say perseverance is one of the main things [I've learned]," Vos said. "Because you need to know how to get past a mistake and then try to learn from it and move on, just keep going, and if you get discouraged, to just let it past you and try to improve next time."
Life lessons like those are exactly what the fair is all about. Craig Mittag, of Prescott, Iowa, judged the Southern Iowa Fair's swine show and took some time afterward to explain what he hopes kids take away from the experience of exhibiting livestock at the fair.
"Showing livestock ... is such a huge stepping stone for the rest of your life," Mittag said, "Because no matter what you do — I don't care if it's preparing for a job down the road, if it's playing softball, baseball, football, showing livestock, the indoor projects, if you're baking a cake or sewing a dress — the more you put into it, the more you're going to get out of it. And if you start with your 4-H projects doing that, that carries on to life."
In the meantime, however, the kids have been clear: Showing at the Southern Iowa Fair is just plain, good old fashioned fun.
"We heard there was a dog show and just wanted to do it," said Silas Schelker, a 4-Her who showed his dog Luke at the fair's dog agility show. "The agility [is my favorite] because he enjoys it and it's fun. I like it too ... He [Luke] likes to run around a lot, and agility is kind of him in his space running around and being wild."
Schelker's next project? Teaching Luke to play dead and learning how to do agility off-leash for next year's fair.
Channing Rucks can be reached at crucks@oskyherald.com.
